The fall is fast approaching and I am excited to open the registration for the
2008 Master Gardener Continued Training Conference. As we have done over the
past few years, we move the conference out into the state on the even years, and
this year the conference is being held in the Ft. Lauderdale area. All the
sessions will be held at our host hotel, the
Coral Springs Marriott. This is a
great location with plenty of shopping and restaurants close-by.

This year, the Broward County Master Gardeners and their Agent John Pipoly have
scheduled an optional pre-conference tour on Sunday October 19th. This tour will
visit the Bonnet House and Las Olas
Boulevard in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Make sure to register early as this
trip is sure to fill-up.

The conference planning committee has done a great job putting together a
program that contains more education hours than ever before. The conference is
highlighted by our general session presenters. We have the ever popular Rick
Schoellhorn back to talk about Global New Plants. Monica Elliott will present
the latest information about Palm Problems and their Care. Ed Gilman will be
talking about Tree Roots and Establishment and our final general session speaker
is Sydney Park Brown talking about Fabulous Foliage. Our concurrent sessions are
diverse enough to fit all interest areas and are filled by a line-up of amazing
speakers.

We listened to your requests and have implemented a one-day registration fee for
those people that can’t attend the entire conference. Hopefully this makes the
event more available for everyone. We also are not printing thousands of
brochures this year in an effort to be more environmentally friendly. The
registrations will be primarily handled electronically, so be sure to share the
conference web address with all your Master
Gardener friends.

Don’t forget to assemble your team to participate in the 4H Plant ID and Judging
Contest. The winning county is listed on a plaque located in the Dean’s office
each year. South Florida has so much to offer in the way of gardens, and unique
places to visit. Come and increase your knowledge, celebrate the past years
great work at the awards banquet, meet new friends and have at great time at
this year’s conference.

The Florida Yards & Neighborhoods
Program
was developed to address serious problems of pollution and disappearing habitats
by enlisting homeowners in the battle to save our natural environment. This
program provides special educational and outreach activities directed at the
community to help residents reduce pollution and enhance their environment by
improving home and landscape management.

Master Gardeners who have received additional FYN training in their county can
become Florida Yard Advisors and help homeowners evaluate and reduce the
environmental impacts of their landscapes. All Master Gardeners play a key role
in educating homeowners about the nine Florida Yards and Neighborhoods (FYN)
principles:

By
the time early settler Hugh Taylor Birch purchased the Bonnet House site in
1895, the grounds had already witnessed 4,000 years of Florida history. A shell
midden (piles of mollusk shells) left by the Tequesta people indicates that
human activity on the site dates back to 2,000 B.C. while further archaeological
evidence suggests that the grounds saw one of the first sites of Spanish contact
with the New World.

Bonnet House’s modern history began when Birch gave the 35 acre property as a
wedding gift to his daughter Helen and her husband, Chicago artist Frederic Clay
Bartlett in 1919. The newlyweds began construction of Bonnet House in 1920,
eager for a winter retreat where Frederic could pursue his artwork and Helen
could compose music and poetry. Tragedy struck in 1925 when Helen died from
breast cancer. Frederic’s visits to Bonnet House then became sporadic until
1931 when he married Evelyn Fortune Lilly. With this marriage, a renaissance
occurred on the site as Frederic and Evelyn entered a prolific period of
embellishing Bonnet House with the decorative elements that delight visitors to
this day.

Bonnet
House Museum & Gardens is accredited by the American Association of Museums.
The site was listed on the National Register of Historic places in 1984 and
declared a historic landmark by the City of Fort Lauderdale in 2002. In 2004,
the National Trust for Historic Preservation included Bonnet House in its
Save America’s Treasures program. Due to the threat posed by
inappropriately massive nearby development, the National Trust and the Florida
Trust for Historic Preservation designated listed Bonnet House as one of
America’s 11 most endangered sites in 2008.

The Bonnet House has one of the last examples of a South Florida native barrier
island habitat. Five distinct ecosystems can be found, including beach and
primary dune, fresh water slough, the secondary dune which includes the house
site, mangrove wetlands, and a maritime forest. The historic “Desert Garden’s,”
plantings have been restored by the Florida Master Gardeners of Broward County.
Their work has been heralded for this effort to improve Fort Lauderdale’s
pre-eminent meeting place for local, state and national dignitaries. Our
indefatigable Master Gardener project coordinators, Stephen Draft and Eugene
Cain have made their work a true success story. The Bonnet House Board thought
so much of their work that they were able to convince one of them, Stephen
Draft, to join the staff as Interim Curator. Evelyn Bartlett was a passionate
orchid collector and the varieties she left to Bonnet House comprise one of the
largest collections of orchids in the Southeast United States. Various blooming
examples are rotated regularly through the estate’s Orchid Showroom.

For
a cost of only $45 you will have a half hour scenic tour through Broward County,
followed by 2.5 hours at the
Bonnet House,
and 2 hours on Las
Olas Boulevard, the heart of Fort Lauderdale and the center for investment,
cuisine, fine art, and life in subtropical Florida. You’ll have plenty of time
to sample from one or more of its 48 restaurants, cafés or bars, along a one
mile stretch of street. You have never seen anything like it!

If you plan on participating in the Pre-Conference tour you may print out detailed
information by clicking on the button below:

General Session – Global New Plants – Where do these plants come from?
– Rick Schoellhorn
– Proven Winners, Inc. – Join Dr. Rick
Schoellhorn, of Proven Winners North America for a trip around the globe
to discover where the plants in your garden come from. There is a story
behind every plant and they are usually pretty funny, but sometimes they
can explain a lot about why the plant does or does not do well in your
garden. Learn where certain plants originated and where they have
traveled in the hybridizing process to bring them to your door. Should
be fun and interesting and if you do not like flying, a good way to see
the world!
[Presentation]

12:00pm
–1:30pm

Lunch
on own

1:30pm–2:30pm

Three Concurrent Sessions

A–1

Invasive Animals
– Learn what
animals are becoming problems and how we should deal with them –
Steven Johnson, UF
[Presentation]

Dr.
Rick Schoellhorn is the Director of New Products for Proven Winners L.L.C. In
English this means that Rick travels around the world meeting plant breeders and
looking for the best new plants to add to the Proven Winners marketing programs.
Proven Winner’s goals include becoming the most respected brand of flowering
plants in the US, providing consumers with tested, trialed and true plants that
will do well in almost every region of the US. For Rick this means that he
travels about 60% of the year, spending much of his time in Germany and the
Netherlands, Japan, Israel, and traveling around the United States and Canada.
Rick’s job is working with plants that are 3-5 years from the shelves of your
local garden center, so he is often unsure of both where he is and what year it
is…

Monica Elliott

Monica
Elliott has been with the University of Florida – IFAS, Fort Lauderdale Research
and Education Center since 1987; She is a Professor and Associate Center
Director for FLREC, with appointments in research, extension and administration.

Monica’s current responsibilities include: 1) conducting research on palm
diseases, microbes to use for disease control, and microbes to use for weed
control; 2) extending information to county agents and clientele groups on palm
disease management; and 3) assisting in the administration of the FLREC. Until
recently, I also conducted research on warm-season turfgrass diseases.

Sydney Park-Brown

Sydney Park Brown is the UF Extension Specialist for Consumer Horticulture. She
is located at the Gulf Coast Research and Education Center - Plant City campus.
Sydney provides leadership to state extension programs for home gardening and
also coordinates the Environmental Horticulture teaching program in Plant City.
Before assuming this position in 2007, Sydney was a long-time horticulture agent
and Master Gardener Coordinator in Hillsborough County.

Ed Gilman

Ed
Gilman has a 50% research: 50% extension teaching assignment and teaches an
arboriculture class. He works with arborists, consultants, landscape
contractors, tree nursery operators, urban foresters, planners, landscape
architects and others engaged in tree selection, growing, planting and
management issues. Research includes irrigation, fertilization, roots, and other
tree transplant and after-care techniques and a recent focus on tree response to
pruning. Our team provides service to the industry and to citizens in Florida by
incorporating this and other research-based information into educational
programs, demonstration sites, publications, websites, and software for our
target audiences.

What
great projects and programs have been happening in other counties this year?

Display Size: you will receive an 8′ x 30″ table top for your display. We
have a limited amount of space so please keep your display to the assigned
table-top space. Please contact Amber Madison (amadison@ufl.edu)
to sign up for display space.

Setup Instructions: The County Display Room (Sandpiper Room) will be open
beginning Sunday, October 19th at 3:00pm for setup. Each display table will have
an ID card for you to locate your table. If you arrive after 6:00pm on Sunday
night, please plan to setup on Monday, October 20th beginning at 7:00am.

Removal Instructions: All Displays should be removed no later than
Wednesday, October 22nd immediately following the conclusion of the conference.

A “Guest Registration Fee” is available this year that allows participation in
the Monday Welcome Reception, Tuesday Horticultural Auction and the Wednesday
Awards Breakfast. Please note that ‘guests’ are not permitted to attend the
daily educational sessions or refreshment breaks. We appreciate your cooperation
in this matter.

We are also pleased to announce “One-Day Fees” this year that will allow full
participation in all events for that day only. Each day will have a
different colored nametag to help identify the one-day attendees. We hope that
this will help those attendees that can only come for one day’s educational
sessions and networking.

Registration is limited. Register early to ensure participation!

Refund Policy: Requests for registration refunds will be honored if a
written notoification of cancellation is received by the Office of Conference &
Institutes on or before October 6, 2008. A $50.00 processing fee will be
deducted from each registration refund. Sorry, no refunds will be honored for
cancellation after October 6, 2008.

Special Needs: Participants with special needs can be reasonably
accommodated by contacting the Office of Conferences & Institutes at least 10
working days prior to the conference. We can be reached by phone at
1-352-392-5930, by fax at 1-352-392-4044, or by calling 1-800-955-8771 (TDD).
The TDD number can only be accessed from within the State of Florida.

We
are delighted you wish to register for this
event.

Advanced registration is closed, however, we
will be happy to
register you onsite and look forward to your
participation.

Please join us at the upscale resort-style
Marriott hotel & conference center located directly on the Tournament
Player's Club at Heron Bay golf course. The Marriott is conveniently
located midway between Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton, just off the
Sawgrass Expressway, in the prestigious Heron Bay development.

The Coral Springs Marriott
is offering participants of the 28th Annual Florida Master Gardener
Continued Training Conference a very special rate of $129.00 per
night (plus 11% state and local taxes), for up to 4 people in a room.
The group rate will be honored three days prior and three days following
the conference dates, based on availability.

To Make a Reservation:

Reservations must be made by Monday,
September 22, 2008 in order to receive this group rate.
Please be aware the block of rooms may fill before the deadline, so
we urge you to make your reservation as soon as possible.
After Monday, September 22, the discounted rate is not guaranteed on
possible remaining rooms.

You may also call the
Marriott Coral Springs Hotel reservations direct line at
(800) 311-8018 and identify yourself as a participant of the 28th
Annual Florida Master Gardener Continued Training Conference to
receive the reduced rates.

Florida government participants:
To receive tax exempt status, payment must be made in the form of a
government issued check or credit card and be accompanied by a
Florida sales tax exemption certificate presented at check-in). Note: The Coral Springs Marriott is seeking Green Lodging
certification. For information about Florida’s Green Travel
Policies,
click here.

Please note:- All reservations must be accompanied by a first night room deposit or
guaranteed with a major credit card. The hotel will not hold any
reservations after 6:00pm on the day of arrival if not secured by one of
the above methods.

- The hotel
check-in time is 3:00pm and check out is 12:00pm.

Click here for directions and map to Coral Springs Marriott
Hotel, Golf Club and Convention Center.

Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International (FLL) serves millions of travelers
from all over the world and is located in the heart of Florida's Gold
Coast. Just a ten-minute drive from immaculate beaches, the area's
business district, hotels, golf courses and many other major attractions.

Miami International Airport (MIA), one of the busiest airports in the
world, is served by over 100 airlines taking travelers to approximately
150 destinations around the globe. Miami International Airport (MIA) has
more than 33.6 million passengers and 500,000 take-offs and landings each
year.

Miami Shuttle is
available in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach & all south Florida area
with a NON SHARE & DIRECT transportation service 24 hours a day 7 days a
week.